The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 46

46 THE HOSTON FRIDAY, JANUARY 1 1988 A focus on small dramas at the racetrack ASK BETH Fatal reaction to coke, sadly, not that rare Dear Beth: I'm a paramedic and pre-Med at Harvard. I've been working in emergency rooms, and I can't begin to RACING Continued from Page 45 At Santa Anita Park, nestled beneath the stunning San Gabriel Mountains. Bill Shoemaker, the winnlngest Jockey of all time, stares skyward in a photo suggesting that he's either gazing at the tote board and adding up his winnings or eyeing the heavens In gratitude for a long career in a sport where longevity is treated as kindly as a penniless handl-capper. His is just one portrait in a section entitled "Journeymen," the designation for a jockey who has made it past the apprentice, or rookie, stage. Some, like Shoemaker, make millions while most others teeter on the brink of bankruptcy.

"Most Jockeys collapse precipitously. They're as ephemeral as television weathermen. They just disappear, leave no forwarding addresses. Perhaps they resurface at lower levels, perhaps they don't. Scanning The Racing Form one morning we come across their names.

We're shocked; we'dfor-gotten they even existed." The relationship of Horenstein's photos and Boyd's prose creates an Image of the track as a place that supersedes all attempts to categorize and classify Its mysteries. On the one hand, through a series of brilliant photographs capturing the anxiety of fans whose faces are reflected in the light of a closed-circuit TV, they suggest the hopeless dreams of eternal dreamers. On the other, there is the destitution of the dead horse and the heartless owner. But. perhaps, what Is most revealing about "Racing Days" Is that it provides a mirror Image of what we want to see.

Like the track, the book never changes, we do. The genius of this BoydHorenstein collaboration is that they avoid the editorializing often associated with racing photography books. In most racing tomes, the emphasis Is on ei- ther the romance as symbolized by a summer at Saratoga or the depression of the back side at Great Barrington. In "Racing Days," the auj. thors seem motivated not by politics or a par ticular point of view but by an Intelligent curiosity toward a sport that constantly thrills and bewilders those who participate on both sides of the rail.

Back at Rockingham, Horenstein's selec Hon finishes out of the money and, quite1 frankly, neither of us is as interested In the interview as we are In cashing a ticket. We decide to talk later and concentrate more on the business at hand winning. An: hour later, Horenstein leaves without cashing a ticket. An hour after that I leave without cashing even more tickets. Our legacy Is tered In a mound of losing tickets scattered on, top of the all-natural-wood-look dining table.

Like Horenstein's photos, it's not a pretty picture. Just true. teU you all the disasters I've seen that were the results of overdoses of drugs, especially cocaine. Last year I saw three kids under 21 die who were Jlrst time coke users. They died from cardiac arrest.

Not everyone reacts fatally, of course, but why take the chance? Bubba Smith looks back but not in anger look at her. Society emphasizes that physical looks are all that matters. How do they know what is under that figure or that skin? Rose You have hit on the main reason: Our culture is intensely commercialized. All day long we see and hear advertising that stresses looks makeup, clothes, hair styles, figures, etc. Ads for cars, refrigerators even toilet plungers usually have a lovely lady dishing out the soft-soap.

It's powerful stuff, and effects us all. After the first impression, however, most people start finding other aspects more important, traits like friendliness, caring, humor, intelligence, understanding, matter most over time. Eventually almost all the people who want partners find them, even If they aren't gorgeous in every way. Dear Beth: I'm 16 and go to an all-girls' school. I feel like nobody likes me.

I lose all confidence and get shy. At home I feel very confident, have a sense of humor and know people like me. How can I get this same confidence at school? Split Personality Cultivate one or two girls who seem most sympathetic to you. Invite them home, so you can show them the "real you." When you have been able to demonstrate your humor and spunk and Intelligence to them, your confidence will grow. Then other girls will be able to see what you have to offer, A i ft Li I thankful to have been ex-' posed to this, because now I won't ever try cocaine, even once.

My life is worth it isn't yours? Sick of Code Blues Everyone's is. You make the danger from cocaine very graphic. Those few minutes of Intense plea-' sure aren't worth the long periods of down time, or more disastrous, the eternity of death. Dear Beth: -Why is It that males look for only one thing in a woman beau-' ty? If she is a little fat or has an acne problem, they won't even BUBBA Continued from Page 45 you're going to fight some person, or whether you're going to Just back off and talk about it." Smith. 42, now a taut 245 pounds thanks to an exercise routine made famous in his video workout.

"Bubba Until It Hurts." grew up In Beaumont. Texas, not far from Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. He talks reverently about his mother, Georgia, a teacher, his father. Willie Ray Senior, a high school football coach, and two brothers. Willie Ray Jr.

and Tody, both of whom also went on to play pro football. "You know, we had so much United Way Information Referral Service 482-1454 and the shy person will start to disappear. And she said. 'Baby, It's just a lack of understanding, a lack of He says he didn't feel rage over the branding. His father had taught him not to harbor hatred over such things.

It was a lesson his father, deliberately shot by a white man while a child, knew first-hand. "Somebody thought he was a deer," Smith says Ironically. Bubba's younger brother and agent. Tody, who Is now doing research for a film about his family, says their father wasn't the only one who suffered at the hands of whites. "Mama's first-born, a girl, had complications three days after she was born, but the hospital wouldn't treat her because she was black, and she died," Tody says.

Bubba says up to the time he was 18 he never associated with whites because of the color bar. "I had never heard the word 'Jew' before," he says. "I had heard and the only reason I knew about that was because I used to watch Elliott Ness on 'The And that sounds crazy, but It's the truth. "When I went to Michigan State 1 had never talked to a white person before, so I asked to have a white roommate who didn't play football." Smith got 5-feet-l Wayne Tromblln. whose Initial fear of the giant melted as soon as Bubba helped him deal with a broken heart by lending him his recording of "Hurts So Bad" by Little Anthony and the Imperials." "People are all the same under the skin," he says.

OF SAVINGS BANK LIFE INSURANCE for $99; For more information on why Savings Bank Life Insurance is the buy of your life call: 1-800-255-SBLI love In our house, and it was so negative outside that I didn't even care about going out," he says. He says he tried to avoid situations where he could be subject to racial abuse. But he couldn't avoid It completely. "When I was real young. I remember lying behind some bushes and a kid got caught and they put that KKK on him." Smith says of the Ku Klux Klan.

"I ran home afterwards and I couldn't talk and my father asked me what was wrong and I kept smelling the skin." "He went to the hospital but you knew as soon as it hit him, with the screams and the smell, that he passed out. 1 almost passed out running home, because, see, I was short and real fat. "And I ran home and I said, 'I don't believe You know, I said. 'Mother, please tell me why people are killing each other. You know, why somebody would do I Bubba Smith grabs two would-be thieves in an episode from the TV comedy.

"Open All Night." in 1981. Serving Massachusetts for over 75 years 'lUitrd wfudtiUtl Anniul pre turn for yearly rmrwdhlr Irrm. rwn-rrmlim IN-110. SimiUr valur viilrtlr ttm ovtr.fl, (Hkr v4iUhl: only lo iImik who wrk hv in M-Mihimtli. Humor behind the stethoscope MOSKOW Continued from Page 45 Scowl." which the book's first let ter-writer.

Dr. David Bateman of New York's Harlem Hospital Center, defines as a "pained curl of the brow wandering, fearful rnnmrn eyes cowering posture that he mtm first mistook for ordinary LIMITED HOLIDAY SHAPE UP SPECIAL! MO. FOR ONLY! Such courtly customs I'll Jorsake If you'll comply with Just this one: To put back down the toilet seat. Sir. after micturition's done.

To which. John S. Bradshaw of Galway, Ireland, responded In "An Open Letter to a Liberated Lady Dear Dr. Lipscomb, you must be Of Lilliputian ancestry If you can "plunge" (your word) Into The "Icy depths" oj one small loo. I think you meant your fundament Alone made such a sad descent.

tTake care with words or, nymph, you'll find It chill on more than your behind: Your letter seven times says "nor" -Supererogatory for After a "not" a "nor" doth give A glaring double negative. And men shall serve your sex, you say. By dropping toilet seats: that way And In no other. Ne'er, you meant. Drop aught besides? Good wench, relent -Else man's sad epithet shall read: "Enthroned In comfort women peed And had men think on maiden's thighs Only when doing up their flies." cnnii iwit mv uiiiidg.

10. 10 Treating Chronic Language Deficiency." "Good Sports: Fit Isn't Necessarily Healthy." "Food: Eat. Drink, and Be Wary." Fads: Giving the Frisbee the Finger." "Occupational Injuries: Work Can Be Hazardous to Your Health," and "Postmortems: In Story and History." The editor says response to the book thus far "has been terrific." The New York Times Review of Books calls the book "as entertaining as It Is informative" and adds: "Thanks to Ms. Moskow you can now brood over a whole range of hazards that may never have occurred to you. and syndromes you may never have realized had a name frlsbee-flnger.

dog-walker's elbow. Space Invader's wrist, allergy to seminal fluid, the plight of trombonists who have to wear orthodontic braces, what to do when wads of concealed hashish get accidentally stuck In people's ears The feminist -oriented In physicians' ranks are heard from. too. a reflection of the feminist march across the American landscape over the last 20 years. They have shared their gripes.

And wit. For example. Dr. Patricia A. Lipscomb of the University of Washington School of Medicine In Seattle, sent "An Open Letter to Today's Gentleman Physician" after "plunging into the Icy depths of a physician's water You needn't tip your hat to me.

Nor hold the dot as I pass through. Nor buy my meal when ux dine out. Nor yield your seat when chairs are Jew. You needn't compliment my gown. Nor send mc flowers iwr pretty SUH'CtS, Nor help me don my coat or cape, Nor take my arm u'lien crossing streets.

You needn't curb your salty tonqtte, Nor shield me Jrom a tale risque. Injact. you shouldn't calef to My gender, sir, in any uxy. A ri Ktur VFARS kvr in NEW YEARS DAY 12 10-10 SAT.9-6SUN.-9-S 7 nn oiMt oikhwoimmis NIUNtlD The patient was referred to a psychiatrist and fell prey to "shrlnkscer's sputter an uncontrollable compulsion to speak openly about one's feelings." Bateman says he was never heard from again but rumor has It that he "fled to the Bowery, where he has allowed a bad case of tipper's elbow to progress to doorway-sleeper's hip." These and other tonguc-ln-check examples of letters directed to the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, which has 225,000 readers nationally and Internationally, could lead one to speculate on the off hours of medical practitioners. Do they not take their patients ailments seriously? Do they go home and hunker down with the letters column and.

Imagination at-the-rcady. frivolously compete for space? Well, apparently some do. Even advertisements In the monthly magazine are fair game for letter-writing sport. For example, In a section of the book entitled "Time Deals New Wounds." Dr. Leslie Iffy of the College of Medicine and IX-ntlstry of New Jersey In Newark was moved to write after viewing an ad In which two elderly gentlemen playing chess make this claim: "Librium rarely affects mental acuity at recommended doses.

Iffy obviously a chess player notes: "It Is with regret that I comment that the positions of the black knights and bishop and the fact 'nat the man facing us mlsfK-d one move In the opening game strongly suggest the opposite." And Moskow, who compiled and edited the material, freely ad mils she, too, had a lot of fun In organizing letters selected to run In various sections ranging' from the aforementioned "Mediiicak: MAKE YOUR NEW YEARS RESOLUTION WITH LIVINGWELL FITNESS CENTER, AND SHARE IN THEIR GIVE AWAY OF $250,000 IN DISCOUNT COUTONS. ORDER BY PHONEi ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS EXCEPTED! THl FlWt IN ACIHTt MRVICtl FPU MtNt WOMtN As Dr. Arnold S. Rclman. cdl rowircisi iquipmint 9t til-I of UMLIMITIO AIROIIC ClAtSIt tor of the New England Journal i4 MiifMfti a mi Tt AM ROOM OUT SAUNA mooirn laiacni ouimnt RILAXINO WHIRLPOOL OLYMPIC Rit WIIOMT VANITY ARIA (WIMMIHO POOLS HCHITttt VB AT fH I OCAftOlt Medicine, says In a foreword to the uneven ACVMJtUM 1 rrivat ihowiiii OMttlNO BOOTH WORCESTER BROCKTON SAUGUS WALTHAM HANOVER MEDFORD QUINCY PEADODY BURLINGTON CAMDRIDGE-SOMERVILLE.

WEBSTER SQUARE MALL 7553 195 NE ZAYRE MALL TOREV WEST 588-1 61 5 K-MAftT MALL RT.1 231 1 G93 004 MAIN ST 8943534 1 WASHINGTON ST. HANOVER MALL 8260351 46S SALEM ST 3967234 150 PARKING WAV 7703080 1 NEWBURY ST. AT HOLIDAY INN 535-5590 34 CAMBRIDGE ST. IN CROSSROADS PLAZA 272-3000 284 O'BRIEN ST. TWIN CITY PLAZA 623-5940 lxxk: "The practice of medicine Is usually a somber business.

Physl- ti clans must deal with a stream of human Ills and anxieties, which nerd to be sorted out. comforted and. If possible, cured. Tragedy 5 and death are constant compan- Ions. Understandably, physicians take their work seriously.

I "But the human condition, which the physician often exper. 1 lenees too Intensely for comfort. 1.4" not without Its lighter side. Pa? tlents, their minuses and their complaints, can sometimes funny even absurd.".